Justice Minister refuses to halt ‘inhumane’ deportations

THE Department of Justice has rejected calls from the Irish Refugee Council for a halt to all deportations in the wake of evidence it claims to have that African nationals were mistreated during deportation from the country on a charter flight.

The council wrote to the Justice Minister concerning the attempted deportation of 34 Nigerian nationals, including 12 children and one child with Irish citizenship on December 15.

The council said many of the Nigerians had lived in Ireland for several years and had been through the asylum process.